White House, House GOP agree on two smaller jobs measures

There is a glimmer of bipartisan agreement in a perpetually divided DC.

Today the Obama administration released two statements, saying the administration agrees with two (yes, two) of the bills Republicans are poised to bring to the House floor this week.

The first is a bill that repeals a 3% withholding on some payments that the government makes to private contractors. The 3% withholding rule, which was signed into law years ago, has been postponed multiple times.

Repealing this law is a part of the President’s American Jobs Act, and it’s listed as one of the points of agreement the House Republicans wrote about in a letter to the President back in September.

The issue of the 3% withholding has been a political football for the last few weeks, with the Senate voting down a repeal because Democrats didn’t agree with how the Senate Republicans wanted to pay for it. And last night, the speaker's communication’s office sent around an email basically daring the White House to oppose their version of the bill.

If the bills pass the House this week, the next narrative on this issue could be an odd one -- where the House and the White House are aligned against a Senate that may agree with the policy, but is notoriously slow to act.